


The Splash Zone

by LovelyWeatherTonight



Series: The Aquarium Love Web [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Aquaphobia, AquariumAU, M/M, SeaMonkeys, The devil is in the details, Trainer!Jaune, Trainer!Ruby, Trainer!Sun, Trainer!Weiss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-10 20:22:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11699235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyWeatherTonight/pseuds/LovelyWeatherTonight
Summary: A grand reopening of the City of Vale's State Aquarium grabs the attention of local residence in the area. Young College student, Neptune Vasilias, has been drug along to a wet misadventure into his deepest crippling source of terror. Scarlet spared no expense in courting his close friend to a sea lion show. However, where the pair are seated fills Neptune with dread as he learns the dark secret of Marine entertainment and is positioned in the most horrifying place in the Aquarium. The splash zone.Meanwhile, Neptune has a one-on-one with one of the sea lion trainers and they become quick friends. The tension between them only grows until 'Neptune' goes and finds a way to screw it up. Will Neptune's fear be the end all be all?





	1. Assisting Torment

 A warm day in the central park of Vale was just blossoming with new beautiful flowers. It was spring in Remnant. The air was far from crisp, it was smooth but still windy. The foliage on the trees were rustling in the calm fresh air. A small group of tourists walk back and forth from the entrance to the exit of the park.The smell of freshly cut grass fills the atmosphere and the leaves from the trees add a tranquil shade to the park benches. A single body occupies the left side of the bench letting the air invade his lungs as he reads the novelette clasped in his two hands. The young man, no older than a sophomore in college, rests his azure eyes fixed on the words that form into sentences and then pages. He sat there turning them in excitement, the words seemed to jump right off of the page. He seems almost entranced in his own small bubble. His attire fit the weather very gracefully, wearing a pale aesthetic v-neck t-shirt feathered and light. Black slim-straight pair of pants with a beige styled belt and electric blue hair swayed to the side with an undercut below. Tan, tall, and handsome, he seemed to be in pure elation to just be alone with his thoughts and his book. Everything was perfect up until a distant loud voice coming from the entrance of the park beckoned him out of it.

  “Neptune! Hey!” The young man pulls his eyes from under his book, the content emotion on his face now a scowl from afar.

 

  “Neptune! Don’t make me lunge at you again!” The voice was from a familiar acquaintance, his hair as crimson as scarlet red and eyes small and green. Another undercut fellow with multiple ear accessories to tie his unique style together. He ran up to the man sitting underneath the shaded tree.

 

  “What do you want, man?” Neptune was agitated. He closes his book and turns to face his friend. 

 

  “So, the aquarium,” His heart drops at the name of the location. “--It’s having a reopening with a whole new exhibit hall.” He continued.

 

  “So-so what? Who cares?” Neptune was becoming frantic. He awkwardly smiled and his words began to rigidly release from his mouth.

 

  “I bought two tickets for you and I this afternoon at the first show.” Neptune contemplated for a moment.

 

  “Um...hmm...no. Nah man.” 

 “What?”

 

  “No dude. I refuse.”

 

  “Wait you--you can’t just decline, I already bought the tickets!”

 

  “Mmm, nah dude you know my reasons.”

 

  “Neptune, c’mon. You’re so afraid you can’t even  _ look _ at water in a glass tank for a few hours?” Neptune had heard enough. He opened his book once more, but lost his grip when suddenly it had been assaulted out of his hands by his vexing accomplice.

 

  “Scarlet, I’m warning you.” Neptune became aggressive and lost his passive behavior. He balled a fist and stood up from his bench. Scarlet spoke calmly.

 

  “Listen. You don’t have to be scared. The water can’t come out and hurt you. It’s trapped in tight plexiglass tanks.” Neptune unclenched his fist. “Just give it a try, I mean hell…” Scarlet handed him an entrance pass. “...Maybe it won’t be so bad, you might even meet someone knew.” Neptune slowly grasps the ticket staring deeply at the words;  _ Aquarium of Vale  _ written in bold in the top right corner. He lets out a relieving sigh and is rewarded a friendly pat on the back from his friend. This may be his only chance to ever experience something like an aquarium. After college who knows if he’d ever go to one in Mistral. 

 

  “Alright.” Neptune sighed. “I guess I’m hangin’ at the aquarium this afternoon.” He let a soft smile trail across his face.

 


	2. A Grave Mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We've arrived at the Aquarium! Everyone is lining up steadfast to witness the crowned jewel of the re-opening. Just remember to check your tickets upon entry. No Refunds.

   A sudden feeling of dread ran up and down Neptune’s stomach as they arrived to the entrance of the aquarium. He sizes up the structure from the outside as Scarlet holds a map to find the ticket registry. They break the silence.

 

    “So! Apparently new transfers are coming for this show, top notch trainers from Mistral, it’s going to be so good!” Neptune smiles, but his facial expression quickly turns to worry. How was he supposed to act in this situation? His greatest crippling fear staring him right in his face every corner he took. Both of them eventually make it to the booth for registering their tickets after a bit of wandering around. When they walk in, the sight is indescribable. The ceiling is at least two to three stories tall decorated with long white oblong and wavy shaped ribbon like decor. The walls are colorfully wide strips of LED screens displaying fish and facts regarding them. There are tons of food places, exhibit signs, and people crowding everywhere. Above their heads displays a banner with text saying, ‘Welcome all to our grand re-opening’. Neptune is entranced at the extravagance. Scarlet invades Neptune’s peripheral vision again, stealing his attention.

 

   “There it is, Neptune!” Scarlet pointed to a large entrance crowded with tons of people hoping to get into the first show of the year.

 

  “We have priority passes so let’s hurry before the other suckers get there!” Scarlet drags Neptune by the arm and runs to a completely separate line leading down to a winding hall that curves sharply around. It’s been decorated with blue ribbon and gold bows holding it up. An usher waiting at a tall door nearly ten feet high stares at them. They open the door and leads them to their seating column. A woman with long curvy black hair and sunglasses with a small headset sits them down in the front row in the very middle before returning to her post.

 

   “Oh awesome, front row!” Scarlet shouts like a small child.

 

    “Wow, you really spared no expense, huh Scarlet?” Neptune examines the ticket more thoroughly, genuinely curious about how expensive they truly were. “And the seats you got put us right at the……” Neptune’s eyes widen. His mouth slightly open, his eyebrows and eyes expressing horror. “Scarlet…?” The lights dim and the doors shut. “Sc-Scarlet?!” The top screens begin to light up, instructing the audience not to move from their designated seating area. “Scarlet!” Neptune tugs his partner’s arm.

 

  “Wha--Neptune, what’s the matter with you? you’re freaking out!”

 

  “Read this, you dust for brains!” Neptune aggressively points to his ticket. Through closer inspection, the words ‘Splash Zone’ can be spotted next to the title ‘seat number’.

 

   “Oh…” Scarlet’s smile drops and his eyes grow wide in realization.

 

  “Scarlet, what does this mean?” Scarlet hesitates, turns his head, and meets Neptune’s stressed gaze.

 

  “Neptune...we might………...get wet.” Neptune’s face turns pale as he slumps his shoulders.

 

   “Holy Schnee Dust Company.” Music begins to play. It’s a familiar tone that sounds strikingly similar to the tune of ‘Flashing Lights’ by a popular soloist. The music swells and the crowd murmurs in anticipation.

 

 

    The show is about to begin.


	3. Front row to the Gun Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The show is about to begin! Everyone ready for the grand intro? Besides Neptune, he's freaking out. However, it won't be so bad, he's got his own distraction to focus on. Anyhow, lets meet the trainers, what a fun group of goofballs they are! a bit too goofy if you ask me...

 The music swells louder. The stage holds four doors in the back wall of the stage spreading out by support beams with large screens displaying the text, ‘Vale Sea Lion Show!’. The floor in front of the doors is framed with lights and a large tank with oblong and wide boulders plastered in front of it. A large layout on the floor in front of the tank and directly facing Neptune and Scarlet’s seating section is labeled ‘Splash Zone’. Neptune is silently panicking. Uneasy in his seat, he tries to break for the door before Scarlet pulls him back into his seat.

 

  “Neptune, will. you. relax?!” Neptune whips his head facing Scarlet furiously.

 

  “Scarlet, I will destroy you.” Scarlets expression switched to sympathy as he sighed.

 

  “Look. no one ever actually gets wet at these things.” Neptune gives Scarlet his full attention. The music moves to a looped instrumental mix of the original. “They only call it that to squeeze a little extra money out of folks, calm down.” The stage doors burst open at the chorus. One young trainer exits a door as spot lights meet her location. The music reverts back to it’s royalty version once more.

 

  “Hello everyone and welcome to Vale’s State Aquarium!” The young faded redhead with short cut hair in a swim uniform with the aquarium business logo sewn onto the breast begins to speak.

 

  “My name is Ruby and this little guy here is Red!” A small sea lion waddles out of the door she had exited. The crowd starts cheering for it. The poor thing has a big red scar over it’s left eye and the eye won’t open like it's counterpart. It seems healthy, otherwise.

 

  “Why don’t you give a good old fashioned hello, huh Red?” With a bright smile the trainer motions her hands by waving one back and forth. To Neptune’s amazement, the sea lion begins to flop one flipper in air and wave. The crowd goes wild.

 

  “ _Good_ boy!” Neptune notices she throws a small gray object being thrown into its mouth. A small silver fish. Not long after, another sea lion exits out of the second door and a trainer with messy blonde hair appears following him and introduces himself to the audience.

 

  “Hey everybody! I’m Jaune and I’d like you guys meet this little bundle of joy, Arkos!” The crowd swells up again. Neptune turns to see how Scarlet is doing. He seems bored with the intro fanfare, it looks like he’s just waiting for the actual show to begin.

 

  “These guys are two peas in a pod, ladies and gentlemen.” The red trainer announces with enthusiasm. Both trainers signal their hands in a diving motion and then high five each other over each other's shoulders exaggeratingly. The respective sea lions dive into the water, then emerge and slap their fins together mid air before diving back into the water splashing the ground in front of Neptune and Scarlets seats. Neptune reflexively pulled his legs back as to not get wet. The sea lions jump back onto the stage awaiting their rewards. The blonde trainer feeds both of them a fish. Neptune is intrigued by the amount of skill these trainers have, while Scarlet is cheering and clapping loudly for the animals. Just like that, another sea lion appears from one of the four stage doors. A beautiful woman with silver hair steps out with her head tilted up and a small, but noticeable smile plastered across her face. She’s wearing the same attire sporting a long side ponytail and piercing white eyes.

 

  “And now it’s time to meet the most graceful of sea lions…” She motions to her partner with excitement in her forearm. give it up for Snowflake, everyone!” The crowd cheers again. This trainer was especially interesting, she was using dust for her performance. She created a glyph over the tank with her fingers and lightly stabbed the water with a thin like sword that has a rubber ball punctured at the top. Suddenly, the surface of the water turned into thin ice. On beat, all three trainers swirl their fingers in the air. The sea lions slide their bellies in a figure eight on the ice and the crowd loses it. _Are these guys huntsman? Why go through all that training just to be a sea lion trainer?_ Ruby then turns the thermostat to high and melts the thin ice causing the sea lions to submerge into the tank and reappear on stage. As per ritual, they receive their recompense of a small grey fish for a well executed trick.

 

  “And last, but not least, we can’t forget about our ‘star pupil’, give it up for……...Neptune!” Neptune jumped. Scarlet side eyed Neptune before turning his attention back at the show in front of him. A faunus trainer appears. This trainer was different, he wasn’t wearing the top to his swimming uniform and it’s pretty hard not to notice his figure. His shoulders were broad and his chest was bold, below his pecs are a crisp sculpted six-pack of abs, below that lies his navel surrounded by peach fuzz hairs leading down to the hem of his swimming trunks. Neptune was stunned. He was staring right at him, his eyes not leaving his toned ripped undercarriage. The sight to him was unbelievable. He just couldn’t take his eyes off of-- what what that? A swish of golden fur? Another. And another. Back and forth... is that a tail?

 

  “How cute!” Neptune blabbed aloud slightly blushing at the outburst, however, the stadium was loud enough he couldn’t be heard. His eyes moved up to his golden messy locks and trailed down to his silver eyes. Straightaway their eyes meet while the trainer just finished speaking. The faunus stares into Neptune’s eyes, his face flushed in red. Abruptly, The toned trainer gives a flirty wink and turns to his sea lion companion. Neptune grabbed his heart and held it tightly. _What was that?_


	4. Neptune's Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neptune and Sun get a little kissy kissy on stage! Get a room you two! Are you enjoying the show? Well it's about to get even more exciting! Neptune and Sun finally meet and Scarlet pushes their agenda into action. Was this a plan from the start or the heat of the moment? Also are the sea lion names cliche as all hell? That's to you to decide!

 

  “Now, you guys wanna see me kiss Neptune?” Neptune’s face turns a divine red as he stares at the sea lion positioning itself in front of the faunus. The trainer motions a ‘come here’ sign with his index finger flexing it forward and back. He gives a cheeky smile before bending down and the sea lion rests it’s mouth on his face. _This guy is so cute._

 

  “Mmuah! Thanks for the sugar, Nep!” The crowd laughs as he tosses the sea lion his small fish treat. “Alright everybody, I’m Sun, over here is Ruby,” She waves excitedly in the air. “Weiss,” She does a small curtsy to the audience. “And uh...uhh….hmm” Sun jokingly lifts his finger to his chin while pretending to be deep in thought. The audience laughs. Juane waves his hand to the side and his sea lion jumps into the water, drenching Sun in water and making his hair drape over his eyes. “Ah yes…Jaune...how could I forget?” Sun iterates sarcastically. The audience eats it up. Neptune chuckles at Sun’s silliness as the trainer shakes his head like a dog to quickly dry his hair. “Get ready everyone, we’re gonna wow you tonight! Let’s get this thing started, already~!” Sun drags on the last syllable of his words. Jaune clicks his tongue on his teeth to get the attention of all the sea lions and cups his hands around his mouth until all the sea lions scream along with Sun as the audience screams in anticipation. Neptune is intently watching Sun’s every move, relishing at the fluidity of his every motion.

 

  The show was like nothing Neptune had ever seen. His eyes glistened at the wonder of it all. Ruby sways her hips side-to-side dramatically with her arms shaking in rhythm of her sea lion that’s waddling and flapping its flippers following her lead. She then claps over her head and Red jumps high to meet her fingertips and dives into the tank of water, splashing the audience in the splash zone and completely soaking everyone around Neptune and Scarlet including them. Scarlet was mortified at what freakout he may need to endure when he quickly whips his head to stare at Neptune. Except...Neptune didn’t notice. Scarlet scrunches his eyebrows in confusion before slowly going back to the show. Jaune positions himself in front of Arkos and moves his arms out like a swan and walks backwards while Arkos stands on its hind tail and hops forward. Jaune comedically put his fist in front of the tank while arkos was in the water and the sea lion grabbed his forearm with its flippers and pulled Jaune into the tank, erupting laughter in the audience. Weiss is holding her rapier like baton with a small rubber ball on the tip directing and pointing at snowflake, then pointing at a high hanging colorful ball and the sea lion jumps high to tap it with its nose. The splashback was greater when Snowflake landing on Neptune’s pants and shoes. Neptune enjoyed the show as a whole, but was much more fixed on Sun. Sun throws his hands in the air and leads a conga line behind him kicking one leg forward, alternating between his left and his right, and shimmying with the opposite hip. Next came the sea lion Neptune, then Ruby, then Red, Weiss, Snowflake, Jaune, and finally Arkos. With that, the conga line concluded the performance.

 

  “We hope you all had a wonderful time, please visit us next year for a whole new experience!” Ruby announced to the audience screaming in a standing ovation. Neptune was soaking wet. The auditorium lights switched on as he watched the trainers lead their companions to backstage, however, Sun had stayed behind to greet leaving audience members. Scarlet turned to Neptune ready to pack it up and leave the area.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t…...scream or flail angrily…...or tear your hair out.” Scarlet was in disbelief.

 

  “What do you mean?” Neptune was oblivious. He had no clue what his friend was talking about, until Scarlet pointed to his drenched clothes. Neptune jumped and pointlessly tried to quickly wipe off the damp feeling, but soon realized it wasn’t working. He sighs in defeat, trembling faintly as he motions Scarlet to start walking to the exit. They both empathetically smiling at each other for both getting wet. Both men walk over to the exit, being of the last to leave.

 

  “Oh boy, I was waiting for you blue.” A hearty sounding voice with a touch of excitement greets Neptune. Sun points to Neptune.

 

  “Oh, me? H-hi.” Neptune started to blush again. Scarlet nudged him with an elbow and he “realized how uncool he was being. Neptune’s flirt autopilot engaged at this thought, the blush still lingering. He cleared his throat. “You looked really cool out there.” Neptune shot Sun his signature smile and winked at him flirtatiously. Sun’s calm demeanor crumbled all at once.

 

  “I uh--thanks, I...y-you too!” Scarlet looked at Sun with a confused snarl, he must have thought he might be brain dead. “Oh um, no I meant--I didn’t mean--!

 

  “No, I got it!” Neptune chuckled. Sun was blushing at Neptune, avoiding eye contact for the moment. He directs their attention to his sea lion partner.

 

  “Uh, you guys know Neptune, of course!” Neptune reaches down to pet it just as Scarlet interrupts and grabs Neptune by the shoulder, seemingly aware of the situation.

 

  “You know, ‘Blue’s’ real name is actually Neptune!” Scarlet spoke. Sun’s face lit up and a gigantic open smile filled his face.

 

  “What?! No kidding, seriously? That’s awesome!” Sun seemed amused, elated even. Sun begins to size up Neptune and check him out. Neptune would mind if it was anyone else.

 

  “This is actually my first time to the aquarium.” Neptune spoke up while scratching the nape of his neck.

 

   “Really? Well, I won’t be performing again until tomorrow, would you wanna maybe tour the rest of the exhibits with me?” Neptune smiled, but then looked at Scarlet sympathetically.

 

  “Well, it’s not that I wouldn’t like to--” Sun’s smile dropped and furrowed his eyebrows. Scarlet took charge.

 

  “He’d love to!”

 

  “Great! Let’s go!” Sun chuckles and leads the way as Scarlet trails behind. Neptune takes a small peak over his shoulder to see Scarlet with a devious look on their face and a thumbs up in front of their chest.


End file.
